Besides being struck by the fact that it was a rather nice
beer overall (and a rather nice Kolsch at that), I noticed that I enjoyed it
significantly more on draught than I had in a recent bottle. It reminded me of
why Kolsch is a great beer style and brought back memories of my time in Cologne (Köln). What
better compliment can I pay to a beer than that?

You Thirsty? Me Too.

It also ignited in me some insights into why I was enjoying the beer more on
draught. I don’t propose to settle the question here once and for all. Indeed,
each method of storage and dispense has its pros and cons. These vary again style
by style. Why rigidly stick to drinking out of one container over another? Far
better to have a grasp on why you might prefer one over the other for a given
style or situation. We will discuss this issue today, as well as Kolsch, that
beautiful flower of Cologne.

The number one thing you need to know about Kolsch is how it
is served in Cologne.
This ritual alone is part of the beer’s mystique but is not all for show.

Check out that Tray

The beer comes in small, straight sided glasses that hold
200 ml of beer. The bartenders are always bustling with trays of glasses. The
glasses fill every square inch of the trays. Your coaster (beer mat for our UK readers)
serves as your bill and as an indicator of your thirst. No need to get the
barman’s attention and ask him for a drink.

As long as your coaster is under your glass the waiters will
constantly bring more beer and make a tick mark on the coaster to keep track of
your consumption. Place your coaster on top of the glass and the beers will stop coming. Your bill will
promptly arrive. How’s that for ‘German efficiency’? My tick-covered coasters
are a cherished memory of my attempt to drink every Kolsch in Cologne.

Not only does this lead to a great atmosphere in the bars of
Cologne, it
also ensures that your beer will be appropriately cold and freshly poured every
single time you sip it. The giant Oktoberfest stein looks cool but leads to
warmer beer once you get beyond the halfway point of your liter. The glass of
kolsch will always be cold to the touch and recently arrived from the tray of
your blue-aproned waiter.

Ewe, Brewmaster at Paffgen

Pouring glasses at Fruh

Kolsch is all about freshness. With that in mind we return
to the draught vs. bottle question.

I had some barstool insights, but I also ran into the limits
of my knowledge. This is also known as speculating. I was aware of some of the
reasons why the beer might have tasted different, but was unsure about some of
the more theoretical and anecdotal reasons. The beer world has as many folk
tales as a sex ed class (who ever met a guy telling people you can get AIDS
from toilet seats, anyways?) and these are best avoided and not repeated.

Hard at Work at Fruh, right in the shadow of the Dom

In order to separate the hypothetical from the merely thetical*,
I reached out to Roger Mittag. Roger is a beer industry veteran and runs the
Prud’homme beer sommelier program. This is a three-level course that will bring
you from Homer Simpson to beer sommelier. This is especially worth a look if
you are based in Canada.

To summarize what Roger had to say in our email exchanges:
all other things being equal the taste differences between bottle and draught
beer are negligible. Where taste differences do exist, they can be chalked up to pretty much anything except the
container. The major exception here is beer in green bottles that has been
damaged by light (as has been previously discussed here).
Blame that one on the bottle.

Freshness is one of the major factors at play.

When was the beer kegged and bottled? How long was that
bottle I drank on the grocery store shelf for? Kegs are not known for gathering
dust in the bartender’s fridge. Having worked at The Beer Store I can attest
that bottles sometimes do. I have also seen dusty beer in Argentine shops. I
recently saw the shelves being stocked and employee was armed with a feather
duster reminiscent of a French maid. No kidding.

Roger pointed out that “beer typically has a 90 day shelf
life”. This means that the beer won’t undergo negative flavour changes before
this time. It will still be drinkable after 90 days. It will just be less
enjoyable as oxygen slowly starts to get the better of the beer. You won’t be
drinking the beer as the company intended.

Met some nice people at Muhlen Kolsch

While the beer might be fine to drink in a 90 day window
would you rather drink a one day old beer or an 89 day old beer? A vivid memory
I have illustrates this well. I recall getting a bottle of Steamwhistle fresh
off the line while taking their beer tour. It was plucked from the bottling
line by an employee for me. It didn’t even have a date stamp on it. It was the best
Steamwhistle I’ve ever had. What it tastes like from the store is fine, but is
nothing like the bitter, yeasty, fresh-bread brew I had that day.

One minute old beer is definitely better than 90 day old
beer even if both are still drinkable and un-oxidized. This is the same
principle embodies by your bustling waiter in Cologne.

Another point Roger brought up was storage and handling. You
don’t necessarily know where that beer has been and how it was stored during
those 90 days. Oxidation is the enemy, “creat[ing] a papery, wet cardboard kind
of aroma in beer”. Roger also pointed out that temperature fluctuations
accelerate this. Going from a cold truck to a warm stockroom, plucked from a
fridge, warming in your car, cooling in your fringe again…you get the picture.

Now for some mythbusting. In case you thought the containers
themselves could be responsible for flavour effects, do not worry. “Kegs are
stainless steel and impart no flavours and the same with glass”, says Mittag.
Surely, someone out there is thinking “what about cans?”. I did not ask Roger
abut this specifically, though he did say that cans are worst for preventing
oxidation when compared to kegs and bottles. This is probably because cans do
not have the ability to absorb extra oxygen that can get caught inside. Beer
caps are almost invariably treated so they can absorb oxygen.

This was my Favourite Kolsch brewery in Cologne

If you are convinced that your beer tastes “like a can” it
is probably because you are drinking it from the can directly and getting a
metallic aroma of some kind. Pour it into the glass and see what happens. We
won’t debate the differences between
drinking Coors Light from the can or a glass, but as more and more craft beers
show up in cans people will need to break the habit of drinking form the can.
Pour your cans of Red Racer IPA (for example) into a glass just like you would
with a bottle. It is essential for letting the flavours and aromas be fully
expressed. Don’t neglect the choice of glass either.

Perhaps many armchair bottle vs. draught debaters are
unwittingly stifling the taste of their beer and tilting the playing field. You
aren’t making a fair comparison if you are drinking straight from the container
and comparing that to a properly served draught beer in a glass. The bottle will be more subdued in flavour. Pour it
out so you can get the full experience.

Classy Wooden Barrels at Paffgen

The issue of freshness is more relevant to beers like the
Kolsch and lager beers. These have cleaner, clearer flavour profiles and thus
defects show up more readily. It is very hard to make a good Kolsch or lager
for this reason. Lagers and Kolsches tend to be yes or no propositions. Once
things start to go out of balance the beer doesn’t lose a couple points. It
gets relegated to the B league. Generally, even a relatively bland ale will
usually have a bold enough basic flavour that defects will be less noticeable.

I have never seen a lager beer meant for keeping or aging.
The Steamwhistle example shows this well. You may be inside that 90 day window
but lager’s clock is always ticking. All beer will eventually oxidize, but not
all ales are at their peak the minute they are bottled. Pick up a bottle of
Thomas Hardy’s Ale***, for example, and forget about it in your cellar for
a couple years.

Caveats & Context:

The beer world is complex and varied. Blanket statements
will not serve us well.

Nowhere did we delve into the issue of cask ales vs. kegs,
nor did we discuss at much length the aging of bottle conditioned beers. Sorry
folks, not really going there today. For the record, I like cask ales but drink from
any container with good beer in it.

Conclusions:

Don’t get your knickers in a twist about bottles vs draught.
Just enjoy your beer, properly poured, in clean and well-selected glassware.
Don’t get caught up in the container. At their most basic, bottles and kegs are
just ways of getting beer out of the brewery and into your hand in the best
state possible.

When you get a bad bottle or a bad pint it is because
someone, somewhere messed it up. Don’t blame the messenger. Don’t blame the keg
or the bottle (unless the bottle is green). Blame poorly cleaned lines, adverse
storage conditions, shopkeepers not rotating stock, etc.

For fun, here is a light-hearted and handy table for
reference.

Pro

Con

Cans

Chills beer fastest.

Light and portable.

No clinking
noise.

Support your local independent recycler/hobo.

Fun to stomp on them and
crush them.

Useful for MacGyver situations

Also warms up the fastest.

Shape is not aesthetically
pleasing.

Worst oxidization protection.

Most craft beer not in cans.

Bottles

Aesthetically pleasing, cool labels.

Good for
ageing beer.

Collecting caps.

Heat from your hand passes more slowly.

“99 Bottles of beer on
the wall”

Blow over the lip to make music.

Precursor to beach glass.

Message
in a bottle, yeah.

Bottles break.

Glass is heavy.

Green bottles suck.

Clinking
noise.

Potential weapon.

Kegs

Holds more beer than cans and bottles.

You pull a handle
and beer comes out: amazing!

You can turn them into makeshift brewing
equipment.

You can stand on top of them like a logrolling lumberjack.

Line Maintenance.

Heavy lifting.

Dropping a keg on your
foot.

Expensive deposit.

Need roomy fridge.

Need gas.

“Party Pumps” and their
ilk destroy the beer rapidly.

Every asshole at the kegger has an opinion on
why the beer is foamy.

Tapping a keg is a figurative action.

Casks

Cool new words in your vocabulary like “Hard Spile”,
“Bung” and “Beer Engine”.

***Embarrassing anecdote: before I knew any better I once
kept a bottle of Thomas Hardy’s Ale in the fridge and drank it ice cold the
week after I bought it. Of course, I hated it. I couldn’t have committed a
greater sin against Barley Wine if I had tried. I learned something though.

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